26 May 2012

A beautiful thought

on the Vigil of Pentecost: "The Holy Spirit turns to joy whatever He touches." - St. Seraphim of Sarov

I've been thinking about the disciples being mistaken for drunks. Whence such a supposition on the part of the crowd? I think may be more than the flood of odd words (which, of course, it says they understood in their own languages), it was rather the overflowing joy that filled them.

All that the Lord Jesus did for them and for us all was for this end: that the Holy Spirit might fill and overflow our lives, He who is (as Blessed Martin Chemnitz called him) the Personal Joy and Love between the Father and the Son. Joy as a Person, Love as a Person.

How can we not then rejoice to join with the Church in crying out in these days: Veni, Sancte Spiritus! Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful and kindle in them the fire of Your love! This is joy itself.

2 comments:

An excellent thought, Father. Thank you. It stirs in me a eucharistic thought, if you will permit. For in that wonderful prayer Anima Christi (some think it to be from Ignatius of Loyola, though it really is much older) we pray, "Blood of Christ, inebriate me." (In Cardinal Newman's beautiful free translation, he has, "Fill all my veins," which is also a fitting thought.)

Where Christ is, His Spirit is, the joyous and life-giving (vivificantem) Spirit, and so in the holy Eucharist I believe we could say that we truly have one of the greatest "Pentecost" moments in this life. I pray all of our churches will give opportunity this Pentecost for the celebration and reception of the Holy Supper.

Deacon, you call to my mind one of my favorite passages of Luther on the consecration of the Eucharist - he likens it to the miracle of the Annunciation and attributes the miracle both to the Word and to the power of the Holy Spirit. West meet East kind of moment in his thought!